Designed to help organizations achieve their availability objectives, the Barracuda Load Balancer integrates IP load balancing and network intrusion prevention into an affordable and easy to use appliance. The Barracuda Load Balancer provides comprehensive failover capabilities in case of server failure, distribution of traffic across multiple servers, and integrated protection from network intrusions.

Powerful Enterprise-Class Solution The Barracuda Load Balancer’s integrated Service Monitor ensures that servers and their associated applications are operational. In the event of server or application failure, the Barracuda Load Balancer facilitates automatic failover to ensure continuous availability. The Barracuda Load Balancer also assists in orchestrating scheduled maintenance windows on specific servers while maintaining application availability through other servers in the server farm.
To mitigate risks associated with failures of the load balancers themselves, two Barracuda Load Balancers can be deployed in an active/passive configuration. In the event of failure of a primary active Barracuda Load Balancer, the secondary Barracuda Load Balancer will automatically activate and assume the identity of the primary load balancer so as to maintain application availability.

Easy to Use and Maintain The Barracuda Load Balancer is extremely easy to deploy, featuring automatic discovery and configuration tools through an intuitive Web interface. To minimize ongoing administration associated with security, the Barracuda Load Balancer automatically receives current intrusion prevention and security updates from Barracuda Central, an advanced 24/7 security operations center that works to continuously monitor and block the latest Internet threats.
The Barracuda Load Balancer also facilitates automatic configuration through a Web-based application programming interface (API) and system monitoring through SNMP.

Affordable While price and complexity have historically restricted some organizations from deploying load balancers, the Barracuda Load Balancer is designed for organizations of all sizes. With no per port or per server license fees, the Barracuda Load Balancer is the most affordable enterprise-grade load balancing solution in its class.

Intrusion Prevention System Many security technologies are integrated into the Barracuda Load Balancer. The set-and-forget, best of breed Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) helps secure your network, even if you miss a patch or if an exploit manages to get past your existing security. In addition to the Denial of Service (DDoS) protection provided for all load balanced servers by the built-in IPS, the Barracuda Load Balancer will also automatically block any exploits that are detected across multiple protocols, with no extra configuration required. Exploit signatures are regularly updated at Barracuda Central, and are automatically delivered to your Barracuda Load Balancer via Energize Updates.

Auto-Discover Mode All models of the Barracuda Load Balancer support Auto-Discovery of Real Servers and Services, to ensure quick and easy deployment of new servers. For common services, there’s no need to manually configure each port. The Barracuda Load Balancer automatically detects which services are running on a specified server, which saves on deployment and configuration time.

IP Persistence The Barracuda Load Balancer supports technology that directs clients back to the same server to establish session server persistence. In environments where session persistence is required, Layer 4 IP persistence provides a fast and reliable solution for most configurations including most encrypted e-commerce traffic, database, and Terminal Services configurations. The timeout is fully configurable and can be enabled on a service level.

Automated Service Monitor A fully integrated service monitor is available on all Barracuda Load Balancers, which allows for easy re-configuration of your servers based on the availability of your upstream and downstream infrastructure components. Downed servers are automatically removed from the farm within seconds of server failure.

Multiple Deployment Modes The Barracuda Load Balancer supports three different operating modes for the most flexibility of any load balancer on the market. Route-path offers the most flexibility, while Bridge-path allows deployment without changes to existing IP infrastructure. Direct Server Return allows up to 10GB throughput, ideal for content delivery networks.

High Availability High Availability is easy to set up with the Barracuda Load Balancer's Web interface. Simply point the secondary (backup) Barracuda Load Balancer to the primary Load Balancer’s management IP address, and the load balancer synchronizes configurations to establish a highly available network that brings your server farm to enterprise grade availability.

Web Administrative Interface The Barracuda Load Balancer configuration is executed through an intuitive Web interface. With features such as quick server and service adding, health monitoring, and Auto-Discover, the Barracuda Load Balancer is easy to use -- a typical configuration can be performed in less than ten minutes!